Path

There are many ways to make and connect paths for electrons, from very low cost to more professional connections. Color pictures of several possibilities appear below. A click on many pictures opens a much larger version. Each column below represents a different set of resources commonly used together for designing and connecting electronic circuits. However, items could easily be combined from different columns. Think of these approaches as somewhat like a word processor, where the composition is invented and revised. In images below the table of images are two examples of printed circuit boards.
 
Aluminum foil wires
Alligator Wires
Experimenter Socket Boards
Soldering Station Setup
foil covered with strips of masking tape, used to make simple wires set of alligator clips used for making and holding electrical connections 3 views of breadboards or experimenter socket boards set of soldering tools for soldering station
Lay strips of masking tape on the foil, then peel up one strip at a time. The set consists of solder stand, soldering iron, solder, wire, wire strippers and cutters.
Masking tape Battery holders Socket Board - both sides Soldering iron
several spools of masking tape, 187x136 a few plastic battery holders for different size batteries front and backside of a breadboard or experimenter socket board a soldering iron
The backside of one board has had its cover removed to show the metal rails that connect the tips of wires on the reverse side.
Scotch tape Chips Soldering station
pile of scotch tape containers and tape, 187x136 Also useful is a hot glue gun. two computer chips, one down and one right side up soldering station, alligator clips holding motor and wire to be soldered
Rubber bands Wire strippers Solder
small pile of rubberbands wirestrippers coil of resin core solder, and its container and cap
Other useful items include: clothespins, paper clips, and sticky tack.

A good first step in understanding these different approaches is to come up with a design that would be done first in aluminum foil, then done with the methods of each of the columns going across: alligator wires, socket boards, and finally in the fourth format, soldering it together in some kind of design housing.
 

Printing the Circuit


When the revising is over, when the composition is finished, the circuit may be "printed" or etched in silicon with x-ray lithography and embedded in a chip. Or the circuit may consist of multiple chips whose circuits are "printed" on a fiberglass board which is in turn placed inside finished housing. Two selected examples of commercial circuit boards are below. Look carefully to see the circuit patterns that run across the circuit boards connecting different legs of the chips.
 


 


Page author: Houghton     |    Circuit Sense